Carrier-free measurements of natural 10Be/9Be ratios at low energies

At ETH Zurich a new method to measure directly the natural 10Be/9Be ratio of a sample with the compact (0.6 MV) AMS system Tandy has been developed, which allows us to use standard sample preparation methods and AMS techniques. Our results show that carrier-free measurements with compact AMS machines represent a fast, less expensive and more precise alternative for applications where only the relative variation of the 10Be/9Be ratio is needed. Increased source efficiency for (artificial) low carrier samples has been found. If this effect could be exploited for natural samples, it would open the field for other applications like in situ 10Be-dating of quartz with compact, low energy AMS systems.